The 1000-point no-feats-allowed build. That forced me to run the annoying Jenny Quantum on the team, banning multiple Probability Controls and +3 modifiers. That last one kept Apollo from one-shotting Cyclops for an immediate lead. Then I made my first mistake.

Not following up with Swift or Doctor. Either might’ve been able to finish Cyke. But he was able to get evacuated by Telekinesis. In the meantime, I’d used Swift to fly Midnighter to hindering where he could counter Iceman. HUGE MISTAKE.

Vampire Wolverine got TKed to make a Charge on Midnighter, then Quicksilver finished him off. Suddenly I was down a man and lost Apollo’s source of Willpower!

But Jenny Quantum got a solid single-target Pulse Wave on VW, stranding him on probably his weakest click of life.

Then I couldn’t hit a 6 to KO Quicksilver to follow up and VW carried the speedster away, surrounding himself with meat shields. Meanwhile, Jenny Sparks failed her attacks, including a desperate push to get Wolverine that landed him on his last click instead of KOing him. And that’s when the 1-hour limit was up.

We played on. Finally I remembered that Jack Hawksmoor could begin punishing the figs still in starting areas with penetrating damage each turn. And Jenny Sparks survived a Quicksilver Flurry and Sunfire Pulse Wave to land on this power:

MASSIVE ELECTRICAL ARC: Jenny Sparks can use Penetrating/Psychic Blast, Improved Targeting: Ignores Characters, and has “3 bolts”. When she uses Penetrating/Psychic Blast, increase the damage dealt to each hit character by the number of characters adjacent to it.

Wolverine, who’d gotten a good Regen roll, was actually super-vulnerable with only a 16 DV and none of the Stealth protection he’d had earlier. Surrounded by allies as he was, he was forced to take a staggering EIGHT damage — twice the amount needed to KO him. And Rogue, too, got knocked out from the extra damage.

Meanwhile, though knocked half down their dials, Doctor and Apollo — with help from an untouched Jenny Q — were wearing down Iceman, Emma and Kitty, while Jack’s effect had all but KOed Cyke and Marvel Girl in the back — and Swift, who’d survived on her last click for too many turns, finally took out Cyclops.

In the end, I’d lost Midnighter, Swift and Doctor but wiped the X-Men out. So it was a loss in terms of the challenge but another win down the stretch with the Authority.

Lessons Learned:

I’d forgotten my chief strategy with Midnighter. Never again.

Must start Jack Hawksmoor in a better spot, especially on a map not playing to his strengths.

I’d originally planned to go for the immediate TK+PW with Jenny Q, as she’s as much an impediment as a boon to my team. But the lure of one-shot kill on Cyclops was too strong, and had I been more focused on that new goal, I’d have had a much more successful game.

Been too busy this summer to keep the blog up to date. Need to fix that. So let’s look at some token toting figures from this year’s Monthly OP kits: Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, She-Hulk and Red Hulk